


someone else is playing gold

by dogf1ght



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: M/M, Witches, this is literally just bc i love ross
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-09
Updated: 2016-03-09
Packaged: 2018-05-25 17:10:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6203809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dogf1ght/pseuds/dogf1ght
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>sometimes what you want is not what you get if you're not willing to wait</p>
            </blockquote>





	someone else is playing gold

**Author's Note:**

> this is based off of an amazing comic that you can read here: http://charminglyantiquated.tumblr.com/post/113043123123/a-short-comic-about-witches-and-wishes-and-wanting
> 
> please note (as with most of my fics) that this was all edited by me so all mistakes are mine and mine alone!
> 
> title from do it again by the ting tings

he smokes a cigarette, looking eerily around to try and anticipate his next customer. 

 

tyler knows where to find him, he has since he found the folded sticky note in the boy's bathroom on his third day of middle school while hiding from his math teacher, who he is still convinced is a satan reincarnate.

 

_ my name is the corner witch _

_ and you know where to find me _

 

suddenly, in that moment, he did. 

 

_ tyler wants a cigarette now, too. but right now, he's here to collect something else. _

 

_ he's snapped out of his warring thoughts when he sees the thick, feather coat flutter when the corner witch moves his dirty, bare foot to put out his cherry red cigarette. he then rests it on the wall behind him in order to keep his bulky body up against the cold. _

 

_ "what do you want?" the witch snaps, his eyes soft but his face pointed. _

 

_ tyler's poor little mind short circuits into forgetting what he came for. "to see if you are real." he says quietly, trying to hide behind an invisible brick wall that would shield him from all things that he fears. _

 

_ a breeze calls into his bones from the northeast. he regrets wearing skinny jeans, which were never a good choice for november in ohio. _

 

_ the corner witch snarls and raises his left eyebrow in annoyance. "i don't play games. what do you want?" _

 

_ the breeze nips at tyler again. the visible brick wall the corner witch leans on protects him, while tyler is left to face the cold. _

 

_ he shivers before answering. "i dunno," he shrugs. "i'm kind of chilly?" _

 

_ the corner witch puts both his feet square on the ground and begins to stand taller, stiffer. he once hunched shoulder become broad, his rimmed eyes bore into his soul, but he also seems intrigued. interested, at the very least, in what tyler has to say."and what will you pay?" he asks, willing to make the trade of goods for services. _

 

_ tyler chews at his bottom lip and digs as deep into his pockets as the fabric and his tiny fingers will let him. _

 

_ he finds 34 cents in various coins.  _

 

_ a mint chapstick he adores. _

 

_ and two locks of his own hair. _

 

_ tyler has no idea how they got there. _

 

_ the corner witch takes them in his cupped hands. he closes them over the obscure objects, and clutches them tightly together for a few moments. when he opens them again, a small plant with only one leaf and a single flower takes the place of tyler’s belongings. the pink plant matches the color of tyler's freezing cheeks and the witches' overworked palms. _

 

_ he gives it to tyler in a mood that's almost apathetic, but the atmosphere it never actually reaches that lonely point. the witch instructs his customer on what to do. "plant it in ashes," no problem, tyler thinks. he burns incense all the time. "water it with clove water," tyler honestly doesn't know what that is, but he'll figure it out. he's not too good for google. the corner witch tell him the final command before giving the plant over to tyler. “eat each blossom.” _

 

_ he takes the flower and instructions wholeheartedly, and as he leaves, the corner witch calls out one last thing to him: _

 

_ “it will keep you warm.” _

 

it takes only a few days for the plant to grow. tyler’s never been this consistently warm in his whole life. 

 

he friends can’t stop hugging him, he hasn’t gotten one of his frequent colds since he started eating the plant, he hasn’t worn his regular fleece sweaters in so long.

 

but he still keeps kicking his blankets off and watching the clock turn to an overwhelmingly depressing 12:00 am. it takes only a few months for tyler to go find the corner witch again.

 

the plant sure kept him warm.

 

but for long enough.

 

_ he finds the corner witch where the edges of sadness and hope meet together, or as his mom calls it, where a liquor store and a gay club meet at cranbroke and washington.  _

 

_ tyler calls out to him. “corner witch!” _

 

_ the witch looks happy to see him. not ecstatic, but happy. _

 

_ when he meets eyes with tyler, tyler immediately rubs his arms in embarrassment and shyness. “i can’t sleep,” he says. _

 

_ the corner witch smiles a small, warm smile. “and what have you brought me?”  _

 

_ his eloquent tone makes tyler want to talk to him forever. _

 

_ but he can’t. _

 

_ he knows he can’t. _

 

_ tyler shows the witch a small drawing in small ball-point pen (the shitty kind, where you have to scribble on another paper for awhile just go get the ink flowing) of a small stick figure person, a smiling sun, and many small lines at the feet of the unnamed figure that seem to act as grass. _

 

_ or, that’s what the witch guesses. _

 

_ tyler stares at the drawing and remembers the therapy session he drew it in when he was 5. “the first person I ever made...that’s a bit like a first born, right?” he looks at the corner witch to gaze his reaction. _

 

_ the gorgeous creature is smiling wide, but his lips remain closed.  _

 

_ “it will do.”  _

 

_ he wiggles a ring with a large, engraved stone off of his thick left ring finger. “take my ring,” he drops it in tyler’s hands, as he did the plant. “twist it three times and you shall be worry free.” _

 

_ tyler nods in lieu of a thanks, and leaves the witch with a curt nod and a stomach completely in knots. _

 

tyler had finals three weeks later, and he studied day and night without one single anxiety attack. two days after that, he got backed into a corner by a jock (who was so large that the super seniors would be scared of him) in order to get at the cash in his wallet, and tyler wasn’t scared at all. 

 

and tyler doesn’t kick off his sheets anymore, but there’s so much else to think about…

 

he sees the corner witch again exactly ninety days after he gave him the beautiful ring. he finds the witch back into a darkened alley, and calls out to him at the mouth of the dark, confined prostitute hallway.

 

_ “corner witch!” he yells, “i am sad and scared and trapped and i don’t know what to do!” _

_ the corner witch smiles like the joker this time, but at least he’s smiling. “and what is the price for help?” _

 

_ tyler holds out his signature dark blue lipstick that he wears almost every week at least twice, the tube a pristine gold color which catches the attention of the corner witch. he stands inert and interested as tyler explains the object.  _

 

_ “a thousand kisses in potentia; first kisses, true love’s kisses. that’s powerful. it has to be.” the light hits the make up then, momentarily catching the light of dawn. the corner witch squints to look at it properly. “plus, it’s totally your color.” _

 

_ he grabs at it, and rolls the lipstick out of its container. he puts it on with ease, pouting and smacking his lips a few times to test the texture. tyler tries to hide the fact that he follows the witch’s thick lips with his watering eyes, while the witch tries to hide that fact that he’s looking the lanky boy up and down.  _

 

_ “take my cloak,” he says suddenly, flying the thick, feathering item around the other boy’s body. “wrap it tight and spin three times and you will be free.” _

 

_ it rests loosely on tyler’s tiny shoulders, but he doesn’t hesitate to take use of its power. _

 

_ he breathes in deeply, slowly, and twirls.  _

 

his new wings are small, delicate, like tyler’s new body, and yet so beautiful and powerful at the same time. they allow him to fly high above the earth, his family, his struggles, his troubles. 

 

tyler is so, so free and so, so safe. 

 

but it is still not enough.

 

it only takes 72 hours for tyler to return to the corner witch, in human form, holding out the cloak at arms length. 

 

_ “corner witch!” he demands into the shadows behind some random family restaurant in the heart of columbus. _

 

_ but the magical creature just coolly lifts his head to meet the eyes of his favorite customer from his favorite spot on the dirty ground. _

 

_ “three times is traditional,” he states sedately. _

 

_ tyler notices that the witch’s teeth reflect the little light that reaches him. tyler slowly steps closer and closer to the ravishing being as he speaks. “i didn’t think i would see you again.” _

 

_ tyler hunkers back into his default body pose: his shoulders hunched over, his ribs caving into his chest, his whole body folding into his center of gravity. though, the bulky backpack that rests on his shoulder is not helping tyler hide from the burning gaze of the ethereal being.  _

 

_ he digs into it, taking out the items he’s presenting to the witch.  _

 

_ he places the items carefully on the ground as he speaks.  “i bring a fire flower and a sleeping ring and a cloak of wings” he sucks in a breath to steady his voice. “and i want something that can’t be bought.”’ _

 

_ the corner witch grins a happy, a real happy grin at tyler, who’s heart swells. it takes awhile for the corner witch to give in to the cute boy’s request, but he eventually, and that’s all he needs.  _

 

_ the pair stare at each other like school boys in love with toothy smiles and laughing eyes and pounding hearts. _

 

_ he then moves close to grip at tyler’s face, pulling it so close to his own that they can both feel when the other inhales and exhales. the witch’s breath smells like childhood dreams, tyler notices, while the biting mint of his breath nips the witch in the face like a winter day. _

 

_ tyler grips at the witch’s hips as if the bones were a lifeline and tyler was saying his last words. he nuzzles up to the wish-granter as the mythical being speaks to him. _

 

_ “and you shall have it,” he answers smiling, and leans down to kiss tyler.  _

 

the pair feel fireworks that pass from tyler’s fingertips to the witch’s hips and from the witch’s fingers through tyler’s neck.

 

it’s then that tyler realizes something.

 

he pulls away reluctantly, his admirer looking thoroughly displeased with the loss of tyler. 

 

tyler rests their foreheads against each other to make up for it.

 

“i never asked you your name” he points out, and the witch kisses tyler once more before disclosing.

 

“josh,” he answers, and pulls tyler so damn tightly against his own muscular body that tyler can feel every bone hold the wi-

 

josh, together.

 

and tyler loves the feeling, loves josh, loves being there in the moment full of worry and sadness and doubts that he can ignore while he feels the lips of his beloved.

 

_ three years later, a child sees a series of arrows written in chalk while she is walking home from an art class at the local library. next to the arrows lies a note written on gorgeous stationary in sunset orange permanent marker. _

 

_                                                          they call us the corner witches                                                        _

_ and we’re easy to find _

_ if you know where to look _

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> and i know the ending sucks i just have horrible writers block right now and i'm just typing up old fics that i still have unedited in my notebook.
> 
> pls comment/leave kudos!!!


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